Made It To Australia

Heyyyy everyone! Guess what!? I am finally in Australia. Sorry I didn't email last week. This email can make up for it. Last Monday I was on a 15 hour airplane flight from LA and didn't feel like writing an email. It ended up being a 38 hour trip (leaving Provo and arriving in Australia). I am still fighting jet lag right now. The time change was 15 hours and 30 minutes. And the weirdest thing is that it is winter right now. We are all wearing coats and have a little heater going in our flat (what they call apartments in Australia). Some of the Elders have heated blankets haha. It is around 8 degrees celsius which is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It just seems colder than 40 for some reason. Maybe the humidity. I don't know. Just weird coming from 100 degree weather and to go straight into cold winter. Sadly no snow on the ground haha. 

I want to start out each email with some fun Australian facts that the average person probably does not know or things I had trouble with at the start of this week. 

-Everything is smaller in Australia. You name it and it's smaller. Garbage cans are an unusual one - don't know why you want less space for garbage haha. But the worst thing is smaller portion sizes of food. Literally every hamburger, slice of pizza, or sandwich is smaller. However, they charge the same price so whoever is the marketing manager is making bank haha. It's really smart to charge the same price, but give less food. My stomach is really sad though. 

-They call burger king hungry jacks over here.

-The mission president is in love with KFC.

-Bathroom logos are different so it took me a fat minute to find the bathroom in the airport haha. I walked right past one because I didn't recognize the sign. 

-Light switches are way different.

-And the one you are all waiting for…the toilets do flush differently. It does not flush the opposite way it just flushes by pouring a ton of water from different holes in. It's really hard to explain haha. 

-Stay tuned for more Australian things. I got a whole list, but I gotta create some suspense for next week haha. 

Leaving the mtc was epic! Shout out to Cannon Cotterell and some of my other friends. They always teased me about being the future prophet….the last night at the mtc the sisters in my district did a “you are most likely to be….” and mine was “you are most likely to be the future prophet”. I was laughing so hard because that is what all my friends have told me for months. I don’t know if it's an insult or a compliment, but it's funny. 

But now that I am in the field, I realize that mtc life was cake life haha. It has been really hard adjusting to a new routine. There is just so much change. And it was nothing like I expected or pictured in my mind. I got some super awesome companions. I got what I wished for. I would joke with my family that I wanted a super jacked, crazy awesome asian companion. I was picturing Jackie Chan as my first companion. I don't know why, but that is what I was picturing haha. And guess what? I got my wish haha. He is 6’3 so we see eye to eye and he is 235 pounds. So he could squash me haha. He is super funny and is making me laugh all day. He is from Taiwan and doesn't know much English. He is trying to learn. So our conversations are pretty funny. We have like half English and half Chinese conversations. I help him with English and he helps me with Chinese. Its funny some of the things he says. 

I am in a three some so I also have another companion from Utah. He is also speaking Chinese, but had to learn it from scratch. I feel really bad for him because I know way more than he does already. I feel very blessed to have been learning it the past couple years. Anyways, they are willing to work hard and that is so awesome! We all get along great! Hopefully it continues! 

The mission president and his wife are awesome! Love them! Funny story is that when we got to the mission home we did some training and then went and got dinner. Usually, missions feed you at the mission home. However, the mission president says that takes too long so he does it his own way. He took all 15 of us new arrivals to dinner. And dinner was a nice sit down dinner in a private room. Then he said we could order anything from the menu haha. We were shocked. It was like a prom dinner nice. The place was really pretty. So with my prom dinner menu in front of me, I along with the other Elders, chose to get this decked out burger. It was so good, especially after the long day. Then we were allowed to get dessert. The total bill had to be close to 500 dollars. It was one expensive welcome dinner haha. 

Another funny thing is that my companions said that every night for the past week a giant huntsman spider (go google it) has been sneaking in somehow through the window and crawling around. They said they can hear it because it is so big. They said the mission office came and sprayed and they didn't hear it the night before. So you can imagine me laying there with my bed right next to the window listening to every sound. Thankfully, I put ear plugs in and prayed that I didn't wake up with a spider crawling over my face haha. 

Driving on the other side of the road is crazy! I felt like I was gonna die every five seconds. I might have to drive in a month or two and that will be scary. It blows my mind. 

There are a lot of birds and some of them sound like a dying child so that is very comforting haha.

Sorry this is a lot of random stuff but funny things. My area is the city, since all the Chinese people are located in the city. I might be here for the majority of my mission. We take a bus everywhere. It is a 20 minute bus ride from our flat. Our flat is outside of town which is nice. We do most of our lessons and prepare in the branch’s church. This is surprising, but the church is on the 7th floor of a big office building. So smack dab in the middle of the city. 

Our main way of finding people is street contacting. This has been interesting. Everyone pretty much hates missionaries haha. I got sworn at the first day and just pretty much got rejected everywhere we went. It is crazy how cold everyone is. Everyone has air-pods in and they avoid us at all costs. Sometimes they will look at us and then walk the other way. I complimented some Chinese guy’s shoes and then he glared at me and walked the opposite way and stared me down until he was out of sight. Everyone is smoking also. Like crazy smokers everywhere I go. And by day 4 I felt like everyone wanted to beat me up. You say “good day” to everyone because that is like hello in Australia. I said it to one guy, as I was walking down the street, and he said how are you? That literally made my day. He didn't stop, but at least he made a nice comment. No one is nice in the city for some reason. You also can't talk to kids without getting put in jail so that is lame. I tried to talk to this nice looking old couple on a bench. I talked to the wife and then when I started to turn the conversation toward Christ the guy stood up and was very mean and then we realized they were Jehovah Witness people just taking a break from their proselytizing stand a couple meters away. So they wanted to tear us to shreds haha. There was also an old man stealing a locked up bike. It was funny because he had a hand saw and was sawing through the lock and a woman walked up and asked him if it was his bike. He said, yes and that he lost his key to the lock. Us Elders rolled our eyes and said ya right and kept walking haha.      

The food….oh my goodness. There is not enough. I calculated it and its about 4-5 dollars a meal. We get 190 Australian dollars which is about 120 American dollars for 2 weeks of food. And we don't get fed at all by members so we have to cook 21 meals a week. So that is 42 meals in 2 weeks. And 4-5 dollars is not cutting it for me. I am literally starving over here. I thought I would hate cooking. However, I actually love it. It is really fun. However, I don't have enough food to cook with. The mission president said that it was 150 dollars but he is giving everyone 40 more dollars to account for inflation. That made me feel good when he said it, but when I actually had to buy food I was shocked at how expensive everything was. I am going to have to get creative. Like really creative because all I could think about this week is how much I could spare to eat at my next meal. I felt like I was fasting all week haha.                                        

Lots and lots of stories I could tell. Sadly this email is already too long. Got lots of stuff to go do. 

Spiritual thought:

The power of the Book of Mormon.

I have always known the Book of Mormon is a true book. I have read it all my life. I have read it everyday since I can remember. However, I have never really experienced its full power. This week has been really hard. I am really homesick. Every morning I would get up depressed haha, but then we would have an hour of personal study. I would then actually study the Book of Mormon. Not just read, but actually ponder, highlight, underline, and read it with real intent. I would cross reference things and verses would jump out like never before. And like magic the homesickness and sadness would leave. It is crazy. Like I don't know how it works, but it works. I have done it every morning and when I do my day is better. It is still hard but it is doable. I also have been praying with real intent. And I have been really humbled. I thought I knew stuff, but I really don't know anything. Prayer is powerful and coupled with the Book of Mormon it is allowing me to draw closer to Christ and He is helping me through each day. The pangs of homesickness aren't taken away, but I am given the strength to carry on. I know that this is where I am supposed to be at this time in my life. There is not much success happening, but I hope to change that. I just want to testify of the power of the Book of Mormon to help and bless your life when you actually study it. Apparently, I have never really studied it because I have never felt the power that comes from that book. I love this quote “My brothers and sisters, how precious is the Book of Mormon to you? If you were offered diamonds or rubies or the Book of Mormon, which would you choose? Honestly, which is of greater worth to you?” ponder this quote. After this week, I would say the Book of Mormon. 

This is a promise from our sweet prophet President Nelson. I have had it in my scriptures for years and now this promise is coming true in my life as I have prayerfully studied the Book of Mormon. 

“I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing addictions. Whenever I hear anyone, including myself, say, “I know the Book of Mormon is true,” I want to exclaim, “That’s nice, but it is not enough!” We need to feel, deep in “the inmost part” of our hearts, that the Book of Mormon is unequivocally the word of God. We must feel it so deeply that we would never want to live even one day without it.”

I want to testify to the power of this book! Please make the time in your life to read it. I know you may not have an hour every morning to read it, but at least spend a couple minutes or as much time as you can spare to read this magic book. You have to have faith that it will help you! Faith is a principle of action. “Faith in Jesus Christ propels us to do things we otherwise would not do. Faith that motivates us to action gives us more access to His power.”

"When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do." This quote sums up my life the past couple days. I have always needed my Savior. But I have never needed him this much. I can feel his power slowly coming into my life as I reach up to him with an intensity that I have never before done. I challenge you to reach up to Jesus with more faith and energy than you did last week. He is there for you! We must use Him and His power more often. He is just waiting for us to be humble and ask for his help! As you do this, I promise that He will show His hand in your life like never before! 

I am missing everyone and all your smiling faces! Don’t realize how much I miss everyone until I am not with them haha. Keep up the good work! 

Lots of pictures….enjoy!  

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KpZ2c5BCbvbVY715A

Until next week!

-zhangzhanglao (Elder Jones)